Phase one of the merge has been completed. Tangled Webs’ posts are now integrated here on Howling Hill. Pensieve will be a little more difficult and time consuming as I have to do it by hand. All 70 posts. Ug.

I was going through some of the spam-comments and I noticed Gina and Erikka commented, however, they were put into the spam folder for some reason. This made me realize more may have gotten wrongly organized. Because there were over 1000 spam-comments (which I deleted) some other comments may have been in there as I didn’t go through all 1000+ thoroughly. My point is, if you make a comment and it doesn’t show up within a day or so, drop me an email and tell me to sift through the spam. The lesson I learned is don’t wait until there’s 1000 spam-comments before deleting them all.

Daily Tannenbaum! Drop me a comment so I can mail you the books I have as your winnings, Noelle!

The answers, btw:

1. I may have been a rotten man, but I’m one hell of a woman. Mrs. Madrigal, Tales of the City

2. I’m going on an overnight drunk and in the morning I’m going to kill the shark who ate my best friend. Steve Zissou, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

3. Oh snapity-snap-snap. Joy Turner, My Name is Earl

4. You failed. So what? You failed, you failed, you failed, you failed, you failed. Claire, Elizabethtown

5. I’m not even supposed to be here today! Dante, Clerks

Stay tuned for another contest!

Yesterday I posted the signs of spring I’ve been seeing. Today I see snow. Lots of snow. 4-8 inches worth of snow by the time it’s done later today.

I’VE HAD ENOUGH!

So I’ve decided to merge, move, and delete. Don’t panic my faithful readers, Howling Hill is not going anywhere.

I’m deleting Pensieve, where I blog about my faith. All the posts which will be merged here will be categorized as “Pagan.” I’m also going to merge Tangled Webs here, which will have the category “Self.” Anything Howling Hill related will remain categorized as “Outside.”

There was another blog I wrote for a few years but I deleted it last fall because it was so full of rage, hate, and fear and that’s not the person I want to be anymore. And in the process of cutting and pasting the whole blog into Word Documents (over 1000 entries I think!), I realized categories are a PITA which is why I’ve never had them on this blog. But since I don’t think all my posts from Tangled Webs and Pensieve will really work under the category “Outside” I’ve decided I’ll have three: “Outside,” “Pagan,” and “Self” mostly to help me demarcate posts and where they (originally) came from.

This means, of course, the number of total posts for this blog will increase by about 100. My archives will be getting fatter. And that’s the goal of all bloggers, right?

Hopefully this merge will take place this weekend.

Edited to add: Already I was making myself nuts with the whole category thing so I’ve just deleted them all except “uncategorized.” My problem is I get to precise so I end up micromanaging myself. So f*ck it, I’m not having categories.

In the next few days I’ll be merging my three blogs together.

At first the reason I had three blogs was because…well, I was nervous about people seeing me as a whole. That is, I didn’t want to offend any of my readers with my views so I thought if I separated my gardening, my thoughts, and my spirituality it would be ok. But it’s not. I feel fractured and discombobulated; scattered. I don’t feel holistic at all. I feel compartmentalized. And while exposing myself is really, really scary, I just can’t continue to pull myself apart in the manner in which I have been so I’m going to merge the three together.

Since Howling Hill is the blog I’ve been writing the longest I’m keeping it and deleting both Tangled Webs and Pensieve. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to do the merge. Wolf did it the last time so maybe I can convince him to do it again.

Anyways, I hope to get this done over the weekend. Continue to check here as I will be posting, just keep in mind I’m moving.

Despite four feet of snow still on the ground, there are distinct signs of spring.

1. Harley has been making his rounds.
2. Francesca is actually asking to go outside on occasion.
3. The birds are chirping.
4. Sun is bright and warm.
5. Snow is melting. I see little rivets of water running through the ice and snow all the time.
6. I can open the front door again.
7. I’m getting pretty randy.
8. Wolf is getting pretty randy.
9. The roads are posted.
10. I have seen the ground! I’ve squished mud!

I’m hoping the snow will be melted by mid-April. I really want to get my garden ready and having snow this late in the year is putting is putting me back by a week or two already. The growing season is so short here we can’t really afford to lose a week or two.

Usually by this time of the year I’m outside naked turning soil, raking, and playing in warm Sun. There’s a particular ritual I do this time of the year The Winds of March but haven’t been able to do so because there is no where to stand outside where there isn’t 4 inches of ice, unless, of course, it gets really warm this weekend and the driveway finishes melting.

But she’s coming, I can feel her.

Crunchy Chicken posted she sent a shipment of reusable menstrual pads to Goods for Girls so Kenyan girls can continue their educational needs while menstruating.

It’s a worthy cause. I think all people should have access to education. And it should to equal access. None of this “boys are more important to girls” crap and nothing should keep girls out of the classroom, not even when Aunt Flo comes for her monthly visit.

But it makes me wonder if sending African girls reusable menstrual pads are just another form of cultural imperialism.

There was an article I read a few months back about one tampon company, I think Tampax but don’t quote me on that, and how they’ve been donating their tampons to South African schools to keep girls in educational institutions as a way of showing corporate goodwill. While this may seem like a fab idea, the point of the article was to show corporate imperialism and how said tampon company is actually creating a market while simultaneously creating a disconnect between traditional ways menstruation has been handled and American ways of coping with the monthly bloody. That is, we catch our blood with bleached white cotton and throw it away and, of course, how menstrual blood is “dirty” and must be hidden away and something to be ashamed of. Case in point: Wolf grew up with a mother and three sisters. He not once saw a pad or tampon in the trash, in the cabinet, nor any blood in the toilet. As far as he knew, none of the women in his house bled.

Women have been menstruating since the dawn of time so I’m sure African women have a pretty good idea on how to handle their moon times. I just can’t imagine African women have been walking around for a centuries without having a clue how to catch their blood, leaving a trail behind them every month. That just doesn’t seem feasible to me. Admittedly I have no idea how they cope with menstruation but I’m sure they do.

So here we are, well intentioned Statians and Americans, sending our products to African nations, specifically Kenya, to “help” girls manage their periods and keep them in school. But isn’t that part of the problem and not the solution? Aren’t we doing the same thing the tampon company is doing, just with earth friendly products? Here we are saying “We know how to deal with our periods, you don’t, so follow in our footsteps. We’ll give you free pads because we’re a rich nation and we want to help you, you poor little African nation.”

Wouldn’t it be better for us to find out what traditional menstrual management African women have used and open up supply lines so they can be independent and self-sustaining instead of sending our product for them to become dependent on?

It just seems to me our intentions are good but it’s really about making ourselves feel better and not actually overcoming the problem: girls are undereducated. They don’t have equal access to the institutions which create self-empowerment. I don’t mean to criticize the good work Crunchy is doing, nor those who have assisted her, I just think there’s better ways for us to “help” than to create dependency on a foreign product.